I have gone through a metamorphosis in my understanding of church in the last few years. The best way to illustrate the change in my understanding is to tell you about our involvement with Nash Sports Academy and the youth of Ocean View.

Nash and Joann Booysen are co-workers with us in Ocean View, a community of 35,000 people. Actually, the truth be told, we are working with Nash, not the other way around. Nash heads up a sports academy and Joann, his wife, leads a day care program. Their passion is reaching the children and youth of Ocean View.

Nash and Joann do church all week long. Nash and his assistants and the volunteers from All Nations who work with him coach thirteen sports teams. They mentor the young people, build friendships with them and visit them in their homes – in short, they impact their lives.

On Friday nights a group of kids from the community gather in Nash and Joann’s home for worship and Bible study. We meet on Wednesday nights in four other homes with those who are seeking to know more about what it means to know Jesus. We are doing church during the day with the youth of the community, and at night in people’s homes who are coming to faith in Christ.

Is this not how Jesus did church? He was with ordinary people all week long. He was involved in their lives. He “gathered” those who wanted to know more. He built community with them. He invested in their lives. He spoke truth to them. He was a source of life for them.

Church can best be summarized for me in the words of Jesus from Matthew 18: “Where two or three are gathering in my name, there I am in the middle of them.”

Not just one day a week. Not for two hours on that one day. Not in a holy building…but all week long. Everywhere we go. Spread out. Engaging people’s lives. Making a difference to those who have not come to faith in Jesus. Serving those less fortunate than ourselves.

Doing church differently does not mean we wander aimlessly through life with no direction or purpose. And it does mean being intentional about investing in people, gathering people, and obeying Jesus commands. Doing church differently involves living our lives full time for Jesus and his kingdom. No matter what our vocation might be. We are all called to make disciples in the vocations and through the passions God has called to.

On Wednesday last week, I sat with Nash and some local school officials and a business friend from the States. We discussed how we could serve the community and the school by building a community sports center and soccer/football field on the school grounds. We all agreed we had to do this. 52% of the high school youth of Ocean View use Tik, or what we would call crystal meth. It is a dangerous, addictive, destructive drug.

As we met last Wednesday, Muslims and Christians, businessmen and sports enthusiasts, All Nations representatives and parents, we were collaborating to impact the youth of Ocean View and rescue them from the drug dealers and broken homes in the community.

To me, it was church. There is more to it than that. But at it’s core, we were obeying the great commission and the great commandment. That’s what church is about.

I invite you to do the same. If you want help, check out my latest book, co-written with Larry Kreider. It is titled Starting a House Church, and is published by Regal in the USA. It is available on amazon.com. Or listen to the some of the free audio messages about simple church on our media page [1] here. You can download them as an MP3 if you wish.